Year R Stay
and Play
Talk
Why?
 Communication
is the number one skill.
Without it, children will struggle to make
friends, learn and enjoy life
Talk in the Early Years
 Communication
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and Language
Listening & Attention
Understanding
Speaking
This underpins all of the other areas that we
cover and is crucial to a child’s overall
development.
Listening & Attention
Children listen attentively in a range of
situations. They listen to stories, accurately
anticipating key events and respond to
what they hear with relevant comments,
questions or actions. They give their
attention to what others say and respond
appropriately, while engaged in another
activity.
Understanding
Children follow instructions involving
several ideas or actions. They answer
‘how’ and ‘why’ questions about
their experiences and in response to
stories or events.
Speaking
Children express themselves effectively,
showing awareness of listeners’ needs. They
use past, present and future forms
accurately when talking about events that
have happened or are to happen in the
future. They develop their own narratives
and explanations by connecting ideas or
events.
By 5 years old, most children…
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Understand spoken instructions without stopping what they
are doing to look at the speaker.
Choose their own friends and play mates.
Take turns in much longer conversations.
Understand more complicated language such as ‘first’,
‘last’, ‘might’, ‘may be’, ‘above’ and ‘in between’.
Understand words that describe sequences such as
“first we are going to the shop, next we will play in the
park”.
Use sentences that are well formed. However, they may still
have some difficulties with grammar. For example, saying
'sheeps' instead of 'sheep' or 'goed' instead of 'went'.
Think more about the meanings of words, such as
describing the meaning of simple words or asking what a
new word means.
Use most sounds effectively. However, they may have some
difficulties with more difficult words such as 'scribble' or
'elephant'
Why is speech and language
important?
Speech, language and communication play a vital
role in our lives. Without being able to talk to, and
understand other people we can’t do things like:
 • Communicate with our families.
 • Buy things at the shops.
 • Watch television.
 • Build relationships.
 • Socialise.
 • Learn.
 • Go to work.
Children need to…
• Learn to understand words, sentences and
conversations. This is often called ‘receptive
language’.
• Learn how to talk using words and sentences.
This is often called ‘expressive language’.
• Know how to use their language socially. For
example, listening as well as talking, or talking to
a teacher differently than to a friend. This is
often called ‘pragmatic language’.
• Say speech sounds correctly so they can be
understood by others.
What we do at school?
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Talk partners
Talk time
Role play
Games
Phonics
Listening & following instructions
Play – social talk
Open ended questions
Lots of commenting – I wonder….?
At home…
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Play some of the games you are going to do today
Play alongside your child – allow them to lead it.
Talk about things that they are interested in.
Try not to over question, make comments or statements for children
to respond to. Provide choices for them.
Give your child time to answer, they may need longer than you
realise.
Play word games that can extend your child’s vocabulary
Substitute parts of stories and rhymes
Up level what they say
Model good use of language
Avoid too much screen time
Play games
Share books
Sing! Poems and rhymes too.
Our environment…
THANK
YOU!